Coming Back
by Kerigan
Summary: Ryou is desperate to let go of Bakura's negative influences, but the task seems impossible. With Seto's, and his friend's help, can he finally understand that life can contain happiness and appreciation as well as the darkness?


**Author's Note: **This took me a good half a year to write, and I apologize. This is for my friend Zero-A.C. ( I do not own YGO, nor Pop Tarts. 

_"P.S.: Could you write a sweet and funny little one-shot about Ryou's new life in the Kaiba household? How Mokuba reacts to the new relationship of his brother, how it influences Setos work, etc.? That would be absolutely fantastic!"_

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**Coming Back**

_Semi-Sequel to I Own You_

The sun rose with a powerful glow, causing the Kaiba Mansion to be illuminated with the warm bright light. The maids, who always arrived before the sun, halted in their chores to appreciate the warm comfort the scene brought forth. Everyone always thought the Kaiba Mansion would be morbidly dark, full of Duel Monster related things, and sad faces. However, both of the brothers knew how to keep a house beautiful and pleasant even if they never had the time to deal with the property themselves. All the maids were never unsatisfied, because they were never under paid. Sure, Kaiba never said a polite word to them, or a 'please', but he understood labor. Work was his life, his addiction, so it would be odd if he didn't understand the value of a dollar. He worked all day, everyday, and it was another chore for the maids to make sure his little brother Mokuba was happy.

The irony of this, is that the only thing that made Mokuba truly happy was his older brother. So the maids did what they could. Right now, their job was to keep the house clean, and to make breakfast for Mokuba, since Kaiba never ate.

"What time is it?" a butler asked.

A maid stopped dusting with her feather duster and looked at her watch. "Umm...six thirty." She glanced at the man before returning to the curtains.

Exiting the hallway, he made his way down to the dinning room. A rather long cherry oak table stretched from one end to the other. A dozen of matching wooden chairs aligned the perimeter, as well as a set of beige glass plates, a set of silver utensils, and cloth napkins. They never knew where Mokuba wanted to sit, so they had every place ready to go. Then they would bring out whatever he wanted as soon as he took his seat and was comfortable. On the far end of the room, about eight feet from the nearest chair, was a door that lead to the kitchen. The kitchen was decorated just like the dining room, so incase a guest was sitting in view of the kitchen when the door was open, they wouldn't have to see some bright tile covered kitchen. Instead, they would see a hallway that looked just like the kitchen. This was one of Mokuba's ideas.

Entering the kitchen, the butler instructed one of the chefs that it was indeed six thirty, and that it was time to prepare breakfast. Last night Mr. Seto Kaiba had instructed the kitchen to make his brother a wholesome and nutritious meal. However, Mokuba came in an hour later to say he wanted strawberry Pop Tarts and chocolate milk.

So the kitchen had decided to prepare both. So today he was getting two scrambled eggs with cheese and ham, a side of toast, fruit salad, orange juice, Pop Tarts, and chocolate milk. Hopefully Mr. Seto Kaiba wouldn't find out about the latter.

After the butler told the kitchen the time, and reminded them of what to cook, it was his job to go awaken Mokuba. This butler was paid to make sure everything got done, and to make sure Mokuba stayed on his morning schedule. Since today was Saturday, he had to call the Mokuba's driver whenever Mokuba wanted to go somewhere.

Walking back up the stairs, he headed to Mokuba's bedroom. There he knocked until his little master stated he was awake. However, as he kept on knocking, Mokuba didn't answer. This was unusual. It was forbidden that any of the household help could enter a room that wasn't assign to them, and Mokuba's was definitely not one of them. "Sir?" he called, another set of knocks. "Are you alright?"

If no one was to answer, he had to go talk to Mr. Seto Kaiba himself. Unfortunately, no one liked talking to Mr. Kaiba in the mornings. As he wondered what to do, an idea struck him.

–

A few minutes later, the butler walked to Mr. Seto Kaiba's bedroom which was on the first floor. The doors to his room were extraordinarily huge. The two large oak doors were basically half an oval, that lifted themselves up all the way to the ceiling of the first floor, meaning approximately 10 feet.

Taking a deep breath, the butler stood there with a cup of hot coffee, and the daily newspaper. That way, Mr. Seto Kaiba wouldn't be too upset with him coming to him in the morning. A single knock on the door was all it took for the older brother. Two or more annoyed him, and people avoided annoying him.

"What is it?" the voice came rather sharp from behind the door.

"Mr. Kaiba, I have your newspaper and coffee." He replied. A minute passed by, and the door opened.

"Thank you." A very happy soft British voice came to the Butler's ears, since the man was looking down. Afraid to look up, because that would be considered rude, he lifted the tray with the coffee and newspaper.

"Sir, Mr. Mokuba Kaiba hasn't woken up this morning. What would you like me to do?" he said.

"Umm…one second." The door closed, and the stranger with the new voice went with it. Shuffling noises, and muffled out voices could be heard, before the door open once again. This time, the butler knew the voice.

"Leave him be." Then the door closed again. Mr. Seto Kaiba was in the room with another man? It was odd because no one knew Mr. Seto Kaiba allowed anyone in his room. Turning around, the butler had to tell the kitchen to throw out breakfast.

--

"What did I tell you about answering the door?" Seto glared with mock anger. A grin cracked from his scowl seconds after he asked Ryou the question. They both laid on the bed, fully clothes, but with Seto pinning down the other. Ryou Bakura a few years younger then Kaiba, with long bushy silver locks, and chocolate brown eyes. His skin was a creamy white, and his smile was simply gorgeous.

He giggled as Seto buried his face in the crook of his neck, letting the soft locks cover him. "I'm sorry." Ryou replied, stroking Seto's back. "So, should we be getting out of bed soon?"

In all reality, Ryou would prefer to stay in the soft cotton sheets, and the big fluffy comforter. The pillows smelled of Seto, and they were filled with feathers so they held his head perfectly. "No." Seto mumbled, coming back up to nibble on soft skin.

"I'm going to have to wear a turtle neck if you keep this us." Ryou warned, and pulled Seto on top of him. The other didn't budge, because he knew he was stronger than Ryou. With another, more enthusiastic pull, Ryou fought to get Seto on top of him. Finally, it took all his strength, groaning all the way, to get Seto to fall. He laughed and accomplished laugh while he hugged his prize. "I got you!!" he grinned, letting Seto sit on his elbows.

"Sure you did."

"Nope, I really did. I'm that strong."

"Sure you are."

The huge king size bed was framed with black and elaborately decorated pillars. Crème colored curtains were on the top, and not long enough to surround the bed, but they were there for decoration. Ryou had watched them all night, since he never slept. They swayed so delicately in the ceiling fan's breeze. He guessed Seto did the same, whenever he did come to bed. He knew the workaholic man never slept, and even when he laid down in bed, he didn't sleep there either. In fact, the only time in the six months that he had been dating him, he only slept occasionally, and that was at Ryou's new apartment.

Since Seto didn't want anyone to get wind that he was dating someone, they had…well _he _had brought Ryou an apartment close to Kaiba Corporation. Only Mokuba knew about the two, and that was a given because Seto almost never lied to his little brother. In fact, all three of them watched movies all night. Most of them were kid appropriate, but much more mature than those damn cartoons on television.

Ryou had whined that both of the Kaibas were too mature. That they had to let themselves go every now and then. Seto gave a mocked laughed, then got serious, and told Ryou that was immature enough.

"Laughing isn't immature!!" the had other piped.

Seto turned to him, they were in the boy's locker room at the time. It was after school, and only they were there. "Well, would you call it mature?"

"Of course! That as well as being happy."

Seto frowned, sitting down on the long wooden bench. "You don't have to laugh in order to be happy."

Ryou did not take a seat. "It comes with the territory."

A calm but awkward silence came down upon the two. Ryou thought a minute, then started laughing. Seto looked up with a questionable gaze that sort of gave his annoyed look as well. "What are you doing?" he asked.

After a minute, Seto got fed up with it, and grabbed his partner's arm. Ryou stopped, but had a huge smile on his pale face. "I love to laugh."

"I can tell." Seto had replied, but didn't smile in return.

That was probably the first time in the relationship that both had realized how different they were. Ryou made it his mission to make Seto happier. After three months, he was still unsuccessful. Sure, he would smile every blue moon, and chuckle a non-evil laugh even more rarely, but he didn't seem happy enough. With work piling up more and more everyday he spent with him, Ryou wasn't surprised to see Seto not sleeping again. So, he came over at nights these days. "I got to go soon." He whispered to the man on top of him.

Seto once again came up. "Why?"

"I got to work." Oops, he had forgotten to mention he got a job to Seto.

"Work?!"

"Yep. I have to be there at eight." Ryou mumbled, trying to get up, but Seto pushed him down in ease. "I have to go."

With a hesitant pause, Seto sat up and allowed Ryou to get out of bed. "Where?" he demanded as Ryou steadily picked up his clothes from the floor. Seto always enjoyed the tiny dance Ryou gave when he was trying to put on his pants. He sort of jumped and twirled just to get in them. However, they always managed to look too big for him. He was the width of a stick after all.

"Starbucks." The other replied, now tugging on his black turtle neck sweater. It was fall, so it was sort of convenient and less suspicious around town. Of course, no one would ever guess Ryou would have red and purple spots across him, but it always felt so obvious to him.

"Starbucks!!" he replied, sounding a bit angry. "Why would anyone want to work in such a low class, low paying, and unsuccessful place?"

Ryou blinked at him. "Umm.. because I wanted to?"

Seto crossed his arms. "I could have easily given you a better job at the Kaiba Corporation? You could have been a promoter or a secretary and still make more money then you will working there."

Ryou began to brush his hair. He had known this conversation was coming. "I don't care about money." He sighed. "I just wanted to…." He trailed off. Seto didn't hear the last part.

"What about being successful and appreciated?" he countered.

Ryou turned to him, opened his mouth, but then sadly realized he had nothing to say. He was never successful, and definitely never appreciated. Why would he want something he didn't even know about? Bakura had sent him to an insane asylum, beaten him mentally and physically, almost killed him, and saved him. He hated his other because he couldn't hate him anymore. Bakura had kept him from the shadow realm, which would have been hell ten times over, but he decided to spare him. How could he? Now Seto couldn't except the fact that his own way of getting a life? He felt like such a failure, standing there in front of a very successful business man, and being told what he was doing was wrong. What was right if he couldn't even get a job?

"I guess…" He replied, holding back his stirring emotions, unable to figure out how he was so emotional. "…I.." no words came to him. Seto gazed down at him, waiting for him to finish what he was trying to say. Instead, Ryou just grinned a sad grin, turned, and left to go to work.

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_As most of my fans know, I am a sparatic updater, so I cannot say for sure when I'm going to update next. However, I always do. So if you like the way this story sounds, stick with it. :)_

_Thanks. _

_3 Kerigan_


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